The invention concerns a shell segment of an aircraft and method for producing such a shell segment.
Shell segments such as fuselage segments in aircraft construction consist in general of a skin field and a backing structure for purposes of stiffening the skin field. The backing structure conventionally has a multiplicity of longitudinal stiffeners, which are arranged directly on the skin field, and a multiplicity of circumferential stiffeners, which are connected to the skin field by means of mounts, e.g., clips, and in addition are supported on the longitudinal stiffeners by means of supporting elements, e.g., cleats.
The manufacture of shell segments of this type takes place either in a differential form of construction, or in an integral form of construction. In the differential form of construction, the individual components are produced separately from one another, and are subsequently joined to form the total module. Such differential form of construction requires a multiplicity of connecting elements to connect the components together. The integral form of construction, which is shown, for example, in US 20070108347, and in which the individual components are integrally produced as a total module, is distinguished by a reduced level of assembly resource and by a low weight as a result of the use of fiber-reinforced composite materials.
In DE 102009060706 A1 a combination of both constructions is shown. Hereby, an integral backing structure and an integral skin field are produced separately from each other and joint afterwards by bonding, for instance.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,383 a stiffener reinforced assembly is shown comprising a composite skin field and a composite stiffener element. The stiffener element is bonded to the skin field and additionally fixed by rod-like reinforcement elements to the skin field.
Further prior art is known from EP 0758607 A2, FR 2804975, U.S. Pat. No. 7,205,066 B1, WO 0220248 A1, US 20030190455 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,997,534 B2.